Ebbon Automotive has reported rapid growth in leasing broker adoption of its Leaselink procurement platform for new vehicle orders.

Claire Hughes, Ebbon Automotive’s head of commercial partnerships

More than 90 leasing brokers signed up to use the platform in the first quarter of this year – largely fuelled by action by several vehicle manufacturers, notably BMW, Toyota and Volvo, to mandate the use of Leaselink for all leasing brokers they work with.

As a result, new vehicle orders from leasing brokers on the platform jumped from just a few in January to more than 200 in February – the overwhelming majority of which were either battery electric vehicles or hybrids.

Claire Hughes, Ebbon Automotive’s head of commercial partnerships, added: “We are currently talking to other OEMs that want to go down this route with the leasing brokers they work with as they see real advantages, on both sides, in brokers being users of the system.”

Ebbon Automotive is also working directly with several of the larger leasing brokers to integrate Leaselink into their back-office systems, independently of manufacturer mandate, to improve the efficiency of their business processes.

Hughes said there were several advantages for brokers in using Leaselink, which were recognised by the OEMs.

“Leaselink provides greater visibility of the dealer’s order bank and, therefore, increased awareness of where the vehicle is in the supply pipeline and when it is likely to be delivered, allowing leasing brokers to provide accurate information to their end customers.

“Delivery is also paperless by default as the overwhelming majority of dealers using Leaselink also utilise our market-leading collection and delivery solution, moDel, which increases transparency and removes all paper out of the system.

“Pricing is also more accurate and more visible once the dealers have confirmed the price, and all processes are captured electronically, which dramatically reduces the chance of error and improves efficiency,” she said.

Leaselink is already used by around 40 of the country’s largest leasing companies to electronically handle and process all new vehicle orders and deliveries.

Other solutions grouped in the Ebbon Automotive business area within the Ebbon Group include moDel and Stockviewer, the campaign management solution. The other business areas within the group are Ebbon Compliance and Ebbon Intelligence.